"Our inner development as persons comes about as we are able to bear the wholeness of the opposites, to experience them as mutually completing, as interdependent and interpenetrating, in some sense simultaneous. To see them, in other words, as alive, moving, and interweaving, like the distinct and yet interflowing rivers that course through the oceans." Mary Caroline Richards, poet and teacher, 'Separating and Connecting: The Vessel and the Fire'

3

"There is a 'higher' power guiding us even in moments of greatest distress." Rama Vernon, President of the Center for International Dialogue, 'Manifesting the Vision'

4

"We inhabit a participatory universe, influencing and being influenced on a cellular level by everything that is around us." Dawna Markova, Ph.D., author and organizational mythologist, 'From Rut to River: Co-creating a Possible Future'

5

"Love is an energy. We don't experience it in the abstract. We experience it through the medium of our relationships. And so it is that the infusion of love that is being asked for above all is an enriching of all our relationships, our relationships with our spouses and lovers, with our parents and children, with the people with whom we work, and even with our enemies and strangers." Daphne Rose Kingma, 'A Profound Infusion of Love', quoted

6

"The universe is impersonally invested in evolving toward goodness and uses any available conduit for the purposes of doing so." Marianne Williamson, 'Spiritual Politics'

7

"One day while taking a walk I asked the universe a question: What is our story? What is happening on planet Earth? I knew it must be one story, for it was one Earth. With that question, I went into a slight daydreaming type walk. Suddenly, I had an 'out-of-Earth' experience. My mind's eye was lifted into outer space. Floating as the astronauts did, I experienced our planet as a living organism struggling to coordinate itself as a whole. I felt the pollution choking our lungs, the hunger torturing our bodies, the weapons killing ourselves. I felt the pain in the whole system for one frightful instant in time. Then, a miracle seemed to happen. I felt as though I were seeing a few frames ahead in the movie of creation. In this moment of expanded reality, an unbearable pain intensified throughout the whole planetary body, very much like the pain before giving birth to a child. There was a flash of light, an unearthly light, the kind that the mystics see. It came from within us, and from beyond us. We saw the light together. The floodgates of our hearts opened. Love streamed forth. The barriers that separated us dissolved. The air cleared, the waters cleared. Healings abounded. I heard the inner words: 'Our story is a birth. We are one body. What the avatars have come to tell us is true. Go tell the story of our birth, Barbara!'" Barbara Marx Hubbard, 'Awakening to Our Genius, the Heroine's Journey'

8

"Over the last several centuries we have moved steadily through the various epochs of our human evolution – from survival and conquest to rational thought and technological grandeur. Our frontier, now, is our own inner being – discovering our spiritual essence, accessing the love that resides in each of us, and offering it as a gift to the world." Daphne Rose Kingma, 'A Profound Infusion of Love'

9

"We have a magnificent metaphor for the presence of love in our midst. Our fabulous technological ingenuity has created a world that is now linked by a pulsating electronic web, a global nervous system which demonstrates in a very concrete way that as a body of humanity we are all beautifully linked together, that we are all incredibly connected…… the real challenge now is for us to see that it is love that is truly the web of our connection, that we are all of a piece as human beings and spirits, that we share the same joys and woes, that we partake of the same eternal spiritual destiny." Daphne Rose Kingma, 'A Profound Infusion of Love'

10

"We are being invited to an opening of our hearts and a deeper awareness of our souls, to an experience of the energy of love which is, in fact, our essence and to infuse it into every arena of our existence. What this means, very simply, is that we need to love more. We are being called to more conscious love, more kinds of love, more capacity to love, more freedom to love, more valuing of love, more trusting that love will carry us to where we need to go, more capacity to feel love that is constantly being offered to us in a myriad of forms – by lovers and strangers, by plants and animals and trees, by flowers and children, and by the gentle Earth itself. We are being asked to become creators of the changes through which, subtly, and with beauty, our world will become ever more infused with love." Daphne Rose Kingma, 'A Profound Infusion of Love'

11

"When White Buffalo Calf Woman came among us bringing the Sacred Pipe which represents wholeness and holiness – the respectful honoring of our unity with all things – she reminded us of its importance for the continuance of Life itself. Ken Carey in 'Return of the Bird Tribes' brings us her words: 'Creation does not take place where there is a scattering and dissipation of energies,' she explained, 'Creation requires a gathering together and focusing of your power within a circle of commitment – like a seed, an egg, a womb or a marriage. If you would create and not destroy, you must remember always the Sacred Hoop. Consider wisely the ways in which you would use your power and then around those ways draw the sacred circle of commitment. In the warm atmosphere of that circle, the power of love builds and builds like a storm above the wet summer prairie until the circle can hold no more and explodes in the conception of the new." Brooke Medicine Eagle, Native American healer, 'Creating a Path of Beauty'

12

"We are a family. White Buffalo Woman reminds us that we are more than family, we are one with each other. 'Whatever you do to any other thing or being in the circle of life', she exhorts us, 'you do to yourself, for you are One.'" Brooke Medicine Eagle, Native American healer, 'Creating a Path of Beauty'

13

"Our traditional Native American greeting in the Seneca language is 'Na:weh Skennio' – thank you for being! Whether you know it or not, each of you represents a spark of inspiration within the Great Mystery. You are needed. You touch the lives of many and are responsible for changing the lives of others for the better. For all that you do and for who you are, I thank you for being." Jamie Sams, 'Messages for the Women of the Millennium'

14

"Myth is always about soul-making and about the pathos that accompanies the journey of the soul as it travels from out-moded existence to the amplified life in the kingdom. Thus it has much to teach us about where we are right now and where we are headed." Jean Houston, 'Living in One's and Future Myths'

15

"Any step that I take in my life of true healing, of true integration so that I really shift my experience, affects everyone in the world and affects what's happening in the world." Shakti Gawain, speaker/workshop leader, 'Moving Toward the New Millennium'

16

"The (mythic) stories of spiritual principals who are everywhere and all at once recalls the finding in quantum physics concerning the ways in which everything is part of everything else – every electron having knowledge and influence upon every other electron – and each one of us is ubiquitous throughout the great hologram that is our universe." Jean Houston, 'Living in One's and Future Myths'

17

"Serving the global vision through our personal vision may change thousands if not millions of lives, and in turn change our world." Rama Vernon, President of the Center for International Dialogue, 'Manifesting the Vision'

18

"Everywhere I am seeing not only the harvesting of the world's potentials but the harvesting of the great mythic stories. It is as if we are in a time of radical restorying. It is as if the soul of the world is rising." Jean Houston, 'Living in One's and Future Myths'

19

"Our hearts are the rivers through which God's love flows. They are the eminent domain of divine energy and possess an intelligence greater than any other aspect of our being. Love emanating from our heart-center is a powerful force that unleashes the very creative energy of the universe." Sue Patton, psychotherapist and author, 'A Deep and Holy Hunger: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine in Daily Life',

20

"The only way to come home to spirit is to allow our love nature, Eros, to be stronger than fear. Easy to say, difficult to practice. We need to bless those who challenge us to be fully loving; they mirror to us where we may withhold our love by being close-hearted, half-hearted, and weak-hearted. They are great teachers for us, and remind us that the greatest remorse for human beings is love unexpressed." Angeles Arrien, 'Transformation in the Millennium'

21

"Before all else, know that we are always in deep and energetic transformation. Always." Z Budapest, 'Harmonizing with the Fates'

22

"Now we are being called upon to expand our definition of love, to understand it and embody it in all of its richness and complexity." Daphne Rose Kingma, 'A Profound Infusion of Love'

23

"A life of love and effort on behalf of the collective good promises the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing what you were born to do." Marianne Williamson, 'Spiritual Politics'

24

"We each have an opportunity right now to contribute to the evolution of ourselves, our species, and the planet as a whole. Everyone is needed. Everyone's genius fits into some evolving need of the whole system." Barbara Marx Hubbard, 'Awakening to Our Genius: The Heroine's Journey'

25

"Just as everyone of us has a genetic code, so each of us has a genius code which holds our unique creativity….In our genius are the ideas, projects, and capacities needed to transform ourselves and our world." Barbara Marx Hubbard, 'Awakening to Our Genius, the Heroine's Journey'